The
Committee on African American
Parity of the Human Rights Commission

The Unfinished
Agenda

The
Economic Status of African
Americans in San Francisco1964-1990

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Committee
on African American
Parity (CARP) of the San Francisco Human

Rights Commissionwas formed to assess the status of African Americans in San

Francisco
between 1964 and 1990, to determine whether African Americans are

better or worse off today, and to recommend
actions designed to correct any

inequities identified in the course of the
assessment The CARP decided to focus the

inquiry on eight areas:

·Employment
and Entrepreneurship

·Education

·CriminalJustice

·Housing

·Health
Services

·Media
Relations

·Political
Empowerment

·African
American Families

In 1992, the Human Rights Commission contracted with Polaris
Research and Development,
a minority owned San Francisco social and public policy consulting firm, to conduct the first study on the CAAP's agenda- an assessment of the comparative economic well-being of
African Americans from the perspective of income, employment, and entrepreneurial participation. This report summarizes the findings and conclusions of that
study and includes recommendations for a variety
of ameliorative actions. The CAAP intends to pursue similar assessments in the other issue areas in the future.

The study looked at the
developmental history of the African American community in San Francisco and attempted both to describe the
factors that have had a shaping influence on the economic well-being of the
city's African American residents and to evaluate their effects over time

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-2

The study found that in the period since
the founding of the Human Rights Commissionin 1964:

•The African American population has
deceased in size. The number of African Americans in San Francisco reached a peak of 88,343 -or 13.4%- of
the city's population
in 1970. Since that time, the African American community has declined absolutely and proportionately-so that
by 1990 there were 76,343 African American residents, or 10.9% of the overall population -

•The African American population is
getting older and there are fewer children under 18 years of age.

•The African American population which
used to be the second largest ethnic group in San Francisco after whites,
are now the fourth largest group. Asians comprise
the second largest group and Latinos the third.

•The shift in the San Francisco economy from manufacturing to services displaced African American workers
beginning soon after the end of World War II and
continuing to the present

•The income of African Americans compared to that of white San
Franciscans has
declined since 1970 from a high of 60.1% to 45.1% in 1990.

•The income of African Americans compared
to that of other non-white ethnic
groups in the city indicates that Asian Americans have higher per capita and household incomes than African Americans and Latinos have
slightly lower per capita incomes but
higher household incomes than African Americans.

•African Americans suffer higher rates of
poverty and unemployment and have
higher levels of dependency.

•African Americans are greatly
underrepresented in many job titles in the private
sector.

•African Americans have benefited from the
consent decrees addressing the hiring and promotional
policies of the fire department and police department even though they have not fully met the goals.

•African Americans have benefited from employment in City and
County agencies in San Francisco. Although African Americans have not
achieved parity in all
job categories, they have exceeded it in others.

•Many African Americans have been pushed
out of the city by a combination of
governmental programs like urban renewal and the high costs of housing. At one point, rental costs which had been reasonable until 1979
or 1980 escalated until they
reached almost 90% of the per capita income of African Americans in 1985.

•Traditionally black communities-like Bayview -Hunters Point-- are becoming more integrated as a result of the net outmigration of African Americans, greater desegregation in
the housing market for African Americans, and increased competition for the housing in those
communities.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-10

Recommendation 26-Order City agencies to provide better
information, data and analysis of
African American housing and economic conditions and that such effort be
periodically updated. This reporting and analysis of the impact of various other development proposals on housing
and the African American Community should be made available.

Recommendation 27-Develop other special programs to increase and preserve housing ownership opportunities. Encourage
development of affordable housing with land write downs and sweat equity participation. Negotiate land deals
with SF Redevelopment
Agency, Section 8 subsidization with SFHA, and assess experience of local sweat
equity housing examples-such as jubilee West and Delancey St.-for relevance. (Goals 1, 10, 11)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-9

Recommendation 19-Preserve and enhance African American equity
in real estate
through purchase of rights of first refusal and/or reverse annuity mortgages with African American homeowners. Implement
through the development foundation (see Recommendation) or a community
development corporation (Goals: 1, 10, 11)

Recommendation
21-Institute a policy that a portion of affordable housing funds generated by such City programs as Tax
increment from Redevelopment Areas, the Office of Affordable Housing Production
Program (OAHPP), Revenue Bonds, Hotel
Tax Housing Fund and tax credits be allocated specifically to affordable projects
serving African American community_

Recommendation 22-Provide a greater emphasis on family housing
projects (3­4 bedroom units) in general and
specifically in the projects serving African American households.

Recommendation
23-Use tax increments and other City funding mechanisms to buy out affordable housing units in
Black neighborhoods that are threatened with conversion to market-rate units.

Recommendation
24-Foster increased participation of African American developers, non-profit housing organizations, consultants and planners
in the production of affordable housing in Black communities in
particular and throughout the City in
general.

Recommendation
25-That neighborhood non-profit improvement programs be fully staffed in
African American neighborhoods and administrative services becomparable to those
provided in other major ethnic communities.

EXECUTiVE SUMMARY-S

capable of fulfilling contracts in these areas. (Goals:6, 9, 10)

Recommendation-15-Negotiate
a commitment to increased lending to African American homebuyers and
entrepreneurs on the part of banks and other lending institutions. (Goals1, 7, 8)

Note: According to the Assembly's
Preliminary Report on the Status of African American Males in California,"Sanwa Bank, one of the five largest banks in the world with assets of $400 billion, made only one
loan to an African American in California in 1991. The Bank of California,owned by Mitsubishi Corporation with more than $7 billion in assets in this state, made
only two loans to African Americans last
year.

Recommendation 16-Establish a clearinghouse for African
American businesses to facilitate networking, mutual purchasing and sales
opportunities through
the

Black
Chamber of Commerce.
(Goals: 6, 9,11)

The clearinghouse should
also provide links to the myriad of business development assistance programs in
the private and public sector.

Recommendation 17-Develop a City housing policy that
recognizes and addresses
specific housing needs in the African American community. While needs for affordable housing are widely shared
in San Francisco, the needs of the African American population are extreme and require more attention and
money. Within existing
subsidized housing programs there needs to be some type of targeting for African Americans both within and without
major concentrations of Black households.
Program designs should be modified to address the realities of African American households such as lower
incomes, larger family household size and deeper subsidy needs.

Recommendation
18-Institute a policy
that African American households have improved access to affordable housing projects in other areas
of the City.
Access can be
improved by encouragement, recruitment and economic assistance.

e

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-7

vocational training programs in the public schools
and link training to job placement.

(Goals: 4,
5, 7)

Recommendation 10-Establish an African American economic development district in San Francisco to serve as the center of a new tourism
area that will attract tourists in the same way as Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf or other locations
that are central to the tourism economy. In this area African American
entrepreneurs will be assisted in
developing restaurants, night dubs, gift shops, small manufacturing plants, artist's studios, music and video
studios, and other businesses that are thematically consistent. The area should be designed to attract African
American and other residents of San Francisco as well as tourists. Seek land and
development funding from the SF
Redevelopment Agency. (Goals: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

Recommendation 11-Establish an African American
development foundation and fund it
through: a voluntary "tax" of .005% (half of one percent) on gross revenues of African American owned
businesses-especially those that receive city contracting preferences under the MBE/WBE Ordinance, minority
preferences from the corporate
sector, and/or subsidization through the African American development district recommended above. Issue stock to investors. Seek.matchingfunds from banks and local corporations.
(Goals: 8, 10, 11, 12).

Recommendation 14-Meet with
municipal agencies and negotiate broad goals for contracting with African American MBE/WBE firms-especially
in the areas of finance, insurance,
and real estate, fuels and equipment purchases. Identify firms

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-6

action hires in targeted areas of municipal
employment-especially at the upper levels of municipal
agencies.

Initiate and sustain the
linkages between the affirmative action programs of the municipal sector and the private sector
to identify talent and resources and for increasing the pool of African American recruits for all
levels of employment

Recommendation 5-Work with labor unions to increase
recruitment of African American
youth for apprenticeship programs and to develop joint ventures" with schools for vocational training courses
and credits. (Goals: 2, 3,
4, 5)

Work with labor
unions to increase recruitment of African American youth for apprenticeship programs and to develop
"joint ventures" with schools for vocational training courses and credits. (Goals: 2, 3, 4, 5)

Note: A pre-apprenticeship
program has been launched on one of large public works projects (Islais
Creek) through the cooperation of the City department (DPW) Business Development, Inc..and the labor community, to target the hiring of
African Americans on that specific
jobsite. The program will link other jobs to continue the employment cycle. Special support and
attention should be given to thispre-apprenticeship
program.

Recommendation 7 -Establish vocational
programs in jails and in conjunction with
programs offering alternatives to incarceration. Contract with local companies
to supply goods built, grown, or developed by participants. Models such as the
horticultural training program at San Bruno jail exist. (Goals: 4, 5, 7, 8)

That is, the unstated policy has been to allow people to
in-migrate and out-migrate from
the city without regard to social policy or goals regarding the composition of the city. In contrast,
this-recommendation calls for the establishment of a clearly articulated and publicly stated "vision" which
speaks directly to the issue of defining diversity
as it pertains to African Americans within the city. This vision should provide the rationale for policy initiatives
designed to preserve or enhance the size and condition of the African American population and provide yardsticks
for measuring whether the city is achieving
its vision. (Goals: 1, 11,12)

Recommendation 2-Note: Negotiate training and hiring goals and
sub­contracting goals in
conjunction with non-profit and for-profit developments in the city such as: the Laurel Heights campus
of UCSF, Mission Bay, SFO International Airport, the Navy Yard, the Presidio, the Port, etc. (Goals:
2, 4, 6, 9) Note: The San Francisco International Airport's $2.3 billion
expansion offers the unique
opportunity to implement a targeted employment program which will serve as a catalyst for both public and
private employment enhancements for African Americans.

Note: The negotiated agreement with Host/Marriot to sub-lease on third of their restaurant operations at SFO to minority
firms in return for a non-competitive extension of their lease offers a potential model for any
organization or corporation seeking
concessions from the city whether for building, easements, land, contracts, etc..

Develop an agreement with the private sector through the
Chamber of Commerce and
other business associations, to adopt a targeted employment recruitment program aimed at training and fulfilling
all levels of employment. Special emphasis should
be given to San Francisco African American residents.

Goal
5-To increase the
employability and employment of African American males. Studies show that when
incomes are held constant, the rates of single parent families are more or less equal among blacks and whites. Effective
economic interventions aimed at
black males should, therefore, provide leverage on a number of problems-increasing per capita and family
incomes, increasing family stability, and
decreasing the number of black males in prison (currently 1 of every 3 black
males in California between the ages of 20 and 29 are under the control of the criminal justice system and they make up a third
of the prison population although they
comprise only 3.7% of the overall state population).

Goal 6-To
increase the number of economic viability of African American entrepreneurs and businesses.

Goal 7-To
increase the level of 'human capital" in the African American community.

Goal 8-To increase access to capital for
entrepreneurs.

Goal 9-To provide access to
"protected" or "captive" markets for goods and services provided by African Americans.
These should include: goods and services attractive to, or needed by, African American consumers, goods
and services attractive
to non-African American consumers but accessible only through African American businesses, and access to
markets protected by set asides
or preferences.

Goal 10-To preserve and/or increase the
level of capital and wealth in the African American community.

Goal
11-To increase community
cohesion and strengthen identity.

Goal 12-To increase the community's
political power and influence on public policy.

The recommendations that resulted from
analysis of the data included the following:

Recommendation 1-Secure a clearly stated public commitment of the public and private section leadership of the
city to the existence of a viable African American community in San
Francisco., San Francisco, like most cities in the United States, has had a laissez faire approach with
regard to population demographics.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-:

•The African American community is becoming
increasingly bifurcated as working
class moderate income blacks are migrating out of San Francisco leaving behind one group of higher income more
educated African Americans who are dispersed throughout the city and another group of lower
income more dependent and
less economically competitive African Americans who are concentrated in public housing and other federally
subsidized housing.

•The average level of education of African
Americans is increasing. The percentage
of African American residents of San Francisco reporting that they had completed four or more years of college
was twice as large in 1990 as in 1980

•The urban renewal
program in the Western Addition destroyed the economic base of black owned
small businesses in that
part of the city.

•The number and size of Black owned
businesses in San Francisco continued to decrease between 1982 and 1987. (Data for 1992 is
not yet
available from the US Department
of Commerce)

•San Francisco's public agencies are not meeting the
minority business enterprise and women's business
enterprise contracting goals established by the Human Rights Commission. A study commissioned by the city, subsequent to
Richmond v. Croson,
indicates that the extent of undercontracting is
indicative of discrimination
in a number of instances.

The report concludes by setting forth 12 proposed goals to
guide the development of the
the African American community over the next decade. and twenty three recommendations for a broad range of public and private
actions aimed at achieving those
goals. The recommendations include a variety of self-help initiatives in the African American community as well as
calling for both public and private sector commitment and involvement in assuring an equitable place for
African Americans
in the economic life of San Francisco.

The proposed goals are:

Goal 1-To halt, and/or, reverse the
decline in the size of the African American population
in San Francisco.

Goal 2-To increase per capita and/or
household income in the African American community.

Goal 3-To raise the income of African
American individualsand families with the lowest incomes above the poverty level.

Goal 4-To create jobs and job
opportunities that fit the full range of skills within the African American community from entry level
to those requiring technical
skills and professional training